Willie Sandlin was Kentucky's only Medal of Honor winner in World War I. Born at the head of Freeman Fork of Longs Creek in Breathitt County, Kentucky, on January 1, 1890, he single-handedly destroyed three German machine gun nests and killed 24 enemy soldiers near Bois De Froges, France, on September 26, 1918. He received the medal for heroism on July 19, 1919, and died in Leslie County, Kentucky, at age 59 on May 29, 1949, of a lingering lung infection resulting from inhaling poisonous gas during the war. Originally buried in Leslie County, he was later re-interred in Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.